In general, treatment instruments for urinary incontinence are instruments which treat urinary incontinence, which can occur due to giving birth or menopause.
Urinary incontinence refers to involuntary urine leakage which influences women and the elderly.
That is to say, urinary incontinence means leakage of urine from the bladder to the outside through the urethra regardless of person's will, i.e., involuntary urination negatively affecting daily life.
Urinary incontinence is divided into true incontinence, stress urinary incontinence, urge incontinence, overflow incontinence, etc., and urinary incontinence is caused by functional failures of tissues or ligaments connecting the vaginal wall, the pelvic muscles and the pubic bones or weakness in the urethral sphincter, and common causes are repetitive deformation of the pelvic muscles, pregnancy and delivery, operations, loss of tension of the pelvic muscles, etc.
Due to urinary incontinence caused by the above-described various causes, when abdominal pressure is increased by laughing, coughing, sneezing, exercise, etc., urine unconsciously leaks through the urethra and, thus, a female having urinary incontinence symptoms experiences great inconvenience in her daily life.
Korean Registered Utility Model No. 20-332533 proposes a treatment instrument for urinary incontinence which treats urinary incontinence.
In Korean Registered Utility Model No. 20-332533, a mesh tape having a considerably long length is manufactured so as to penetrate the lower abdomen through a female vaginal wall and then to be exposed to the outside, and the mesh tape is implanted into the human body by a Transobturator vaginal tape (TOT) surgery which is well known in the medicine.
Both the mesh tape disclosed in Korean Registered Utility Model No. 20-332533 and a general mesh tape for TOT surgery provided to treat urinary incontinence have a structure in which both ends of the mesh tape sequentially pass through the inside of the lower abdominal tissues via a female vaginal wall and then are exposed to the outside through both incisional parts of the lower abdomen.
In order to stably fix the mesh tape to the inside of the lower abdominal tissues to support the urethra without movement or slip, in addition to the central part of the mesh tape supporting the urethra, both side parts of the mesh tape having a long length need to be implanted into the lower abdominal tissues.
However, if the mesh tape disclosed in Korean Registered Utility Model No. 20-332533 is excessively deeply inserted and fixed into the lower abdominal tissues of a female patient, the mesh tape excessively strongly presses the urethra and the female patient may have difficulty in urinating.
Further, in order to adjust the tension of the mesh tape inserted and fixed into the lower abdominal tissues of the female patient, the mesh tape should be inconveniently pulled in the outward direction of the lower abdominal tissues of the female patient and, thus, it is difficult to adjust the tension of the mesh tape.
Moreover, when sling surgery for treating urinary incontinence of a young woman is carried out, as she grows old, the tension of the mesh tape is excessively strongly applied according to a hardening process of human tissues and thus a possibility of increasing a residual urine mass may be increased.
Therefore, using biodegradable substances which are naturally absorbed by the human body as a designated time from application of a mesh tape passes, the mesh tape may maintain a high tension at the initial stage and then have a slightly lower tension after the designated time passes.
(Patent Document 1) Korean Registered Utility Model No. 20-332533